Muay Thai

Today I attended my second class of Muay Thai.  This time, I knew what to expect, but Monday?  I had no idea what I was getting into.  My host sister asked me if I wanted to try Muay Thai, a class that she attended on a regular basis.  I, of course, said yes, who could say no to a Muay Thai class in Brazil?  I expected to work on some jabs and kicks; nothing too hard, just basics.  So I said, "Alright, I'm gonna go for a run now, I'll be back by five!"  So off I went, busting my butt trying to get my two miles in.  I returned sweaty and red-faced, ready for a nice, easy class.  She had said that it was great for flexibility so I figured that'd be great after a run!  So naive.  So we arrived at the location, a fairly big building with one side almost completely open to the air.  There are a lot of shops or cafés aqui that are built with a garage-door-like opening that is only shut when the store is closed.  One of the results of this beautiful weather.  But anyway, this spacious room was decorated with posters of intimidating, muscular people wearing boxing gloves and showing off their ample biceps or abs.  The trainer is a tall Brazilian guy, who spoke great Portuguese of which I understood very little.  We had our class on a large square area, cornered off and lightly padded.  We stretched for a moment and then dove right into abdomen exercises, running, jumping jacks, more abdomen exercises, wall squats, push-ups, more abdomen exercises.  Soon I was regretting my brisk little jog earlier.  Then we got to the punching and kicking part.  Now, I'm a pretty peaceful person.  I don't really get that angry and violence isn't my style.  But let me tell you, being able to kick someone as hard as I can- that's some serious stress relief!  It was amazing.  Plus, I feel pretty cool wearing the gloves.  I walked out of that building and into the cool, winter night air feeling amazingly energized.  I awoke the next morning to an abdomen that screamed at me when I tried to sit up and hamstrings that ached every time I sat down.  But I was so satisfied.  I signed up to take classes two times a week and look forward to punching my instructor.